Monday, November 06, 2006

Crunch Time

It's real simple, folks. November 7 is Election Day here in the United States. If you're registered to vote in your locale, GO VOTE. I'm asking my Illinois readers to go out and vote especially because my job deals with the electoral process. It doesn't deal with voting machines or anything like that, but I make sure that campaigns stay honest. So go out and exercise your right to vote. If you're registered and you don't vote, or you never bothered to register, I'm going to tell you this: YOU'RE SCREWING YOURSELF IF YOU CHOOSE NOT TO VOTE. You willingly gave up your chance to guide this nation. If the person you wanted in office doesn't get in and you didn't vote when you had the opportunity, YOU ARE THE ONE TO BLAME BECAUSE YOU'RE TOO LAZY TO VOTE. If you cast your vote and your candidate doesn't win, that's one thing. If you don't cast your vote and your candidate loses you have no right to complain about where the nation is going. You want to talk hypocrisy? Hypocrisy is someone who wants all the bells and whistles of a modern democracy but won't even do the bare minimum to maintain it. Oh, you pay taxes, you say? Big deal, so do the rest of the voters.

I'm not telling you for whom you should cast your vote. I'm not campaigning for anyone. I'm not going to tell you who I'm voting for or why. Those things go against the neutrality needed for me to do my job properly. I will tell you to GO AND VOTE. As a US citizen, you have a right given to you and enshrined in the US Constitution to cast your ballot and peacefully resolve the question of political leadership from the smallest township to the national government itself. Ignoring that right is an invitation to those who think they can make better decisions for you than you can for yourself. You have to ask yourself if you really want your life micromanaged. If you do, then stay home on November 7th. Whether you want the status quo to be maintained or you want a change in how things are run, then you have your option to vote. GO OUT AND VOTE. Do not put this off until the end of the day. If you have to be late for work or class, be late for work or class. If you keep putting it off until the last minute, you may find yourself outside the polling station facing an election judge and a response of "Sorry, the polls are closed. Our hours were from 6AM to 7PM. Couldn't you even bother to show up during that time?" If you couldn't, then you only have yourself to blame for the way things are. You may be that deciding vote. Go change things. Go keep them the way you like them. Either way, GO VOTE!